WC78 – Updrafts by Dan Vera

I think that the majority of the gay press is quite bad and misleading to the intellectual and physical health of homosexuals. It betrays the historical legacy of brilliance that once existed in the gay world, of being the true guardians and keepers of intellectual and artistic brilliance. Gay people have upheld high art for years. Now, in the gay male press, there's nowhere for the opera queens, there's nowhere for the faggy snobs. It's all about youth and body image. It's very light reading, you know? And on the physical health side, there's a total glorification and acceptance of extreme drug use and sexual license. I don't want to seem like a prudish person–I believe that what happens in a person's bedroom is private–but I do believe that the press have to get a little more proactive about the health of our community. ~ RufusWainwright

When a flower blooms and then dies, we do not call that flower a failure. And flowers don’t so much die as go to seed. We all carry the seeds of our experience in our hearts, and we plant these wherever we go. ~ CarolynShaffer

The warm bodies shine together ~ AllenGinsberg

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. ~AntoinedeSaintExupery

We must get back into relation, vivid and nourishing relation to the cosmos. The way is through daily ritual and the reawakening. We must once more practice the ritual of dawn and noon and sunset, the ritual of kindling fire and pouring water, the ritual of the first breath, and the last. ~ D.H.Lawrence

I think now especially we’re misled so often. We have our eye on the horizon looking for a genius of some sort to save us. There is no genius coming. The genius is already here. It’s in the community. And our difficulty seems to be that sometimes we confuse the manifestation of genius in an individual with the notion that that’s where it resides. But it doesn’t reside in an individual. Its in the community of people. ~ BarryLopez

He who binds to himself a joyDoes the winged life destroyBut he who kisses the joy as it fliesLives in eternity’s sunrise. ~ WilliamBlake

Don't listen to those who say, “It's not done that way.” Maybe it’s not, but maybe you will. Don't listen to those who say, “You're taking too big a chance.” Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor, and it would surely be rubbed out by today. Most importantly, don't listen when the little voice of fear inside of you rears its ugly head and says, “They're all smarter than you out there. They're more talented, they're taller, blonder, prettier, luckier and have connections…” I firmly believe that if you follow a path that interests you, not to the exclusion of love, sensitivity, and cooperation with others, but with the strength of conviction that you can move others by your own efforts, and do not make success or failure the criteria by which you live, the chances are you'll be a person worthy of your own respect. ~ NeilSimon

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One thought on “WC78 – Updrafts by Dan Vera”

aspectimago here, and i will try not to stay mysterious
by telling you I am a gay male 46 yrs old, in NYC up nights
like to write, with my pug who dictates very well when he’s
not ill, now snoring up a lovely storm of post-earache
brand of sleep, makes me fortified knowing he’s finally
not suffering and promises to let me know sooner next time
this time comes round….

now round to you, Mr. Vera, just
wanted to wish you good luck with your new book, I will
proceed to where i need to go above to check it out….
your radiance shows in pics; here, i am a complete
stranger but drawn to the brotherhood of gay writers, fellow
wanderers, poets of the gay spirit–which by the way,
in case no one has told you, can be spotted in all
photos Dan–coming out, way, way past pres. (press!)
present (3 cycles, good number wish, not witch) into future:

speak your poetry, keep the belt on the parkway,
and dactyl the hell right out of it! Now,besides
this poet’s pug, critic’s pen, a pun also rises!

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Gay Wisdom – Today in Gay History

Born

0053 -

TRAJAN, Roman emperor, born. The first non-Italian Roman emperor. His accomplishments were both martial and civic, including construction of the aqueducts, the restoration of the Appian Way and the building of the massive Forum of Trajan. According to Spartianus, he was a proud possessor of a paedogogium, a road-show harem of boys he took along with him on campaign, apparently for his and his officers’ pleasure.

His sexuality was never in question, only the stories used to illustrate his preferences. The monumental erection, the Column of Trajan, was Rome’s highly appropriate tribute to this, emperor, considered to have been one of the “good emperors.”

1947 -

American author, poet and activist, PERRY BRASS was born today Brass grew up in Savannah, Georgia grew up in the 1950s and 60s in equal parts Southern, Jewish, economically impoverished, and very much gay. To escape the South’s violent homophobia, he hitchhiked at age 17 from Savannah to San Francisco — an adventure, he recalls, that was “like Mark Twain with drag queens.” He has published fourteen books and been a finalist six times in three categories (poetry; gay science fiction and fantasy; spirituality and religion) for national Lambda Literary Awards.

One of the main themes in his writing has been the integration of sexuality and the religious or spiritual impulse, as exemplified in his novels Albert: or, The Book of Man, Angel Lust, and Substance of God. His writings have attempted to answer questions such as: Why are so many gay men religious and political conservatives? Why is the need for God so important to us? What is our own place in nature and the world?

Among the early anthologies that included Brass's work were The Male Muse, the first anthology of openly gay poetry ever published, edited by Ian Young; The Gay Liberation Book from Rolling Stone Press, including work by John Lennon; The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse; and Gay Roots from Gay Sunshine Press. His work can be found in over 20 anthologies of poetry, short stories, essays, memoirs, and other writings. A poetry cycle called "Five Gay Jewish Prayers" was used as part of the high holiday service at New York's Beth Simchat Torah congregation. The text of this poem was accepted (in 1985) as one of the first gay Jewish documents in the YIVO Archives of Jewish history. This poem was set to choral music by Chris De Blasio, as "Five Prayers," which has been sung by several gay choruses.

In 1984, his play Night Chills, an early play dealing with the AIDS crisis, won a Jane Chambers International Gay Playwriting Award. Brass’s collaborations with composers include the words for "All the Way Through Evening," a five-song cycle set by DeBlasio, which was featured on the AIDS Quilt Songbook CD from Harmonia Mundi, France, and Heartbeats from Minnesota Public Radio; "The Angel Voices of Men" set by Ricky Ian Gordon and commissioned by the Dick Cable Musical Trust for the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, which has featured it on its CD Gay Century Songbook; "Three Brass Songs" with Grammy-nominated composer Fred Hersch; and "Waltzes for Men" also commissioned by the DCMT for the NYC Gay Men’s Chorus and set by Craig Carnahan.

Brass's non-fiction book, How to Survive Your Own Gay Life (Belhue Press, 1999) deals with the psychic and physical survival of gay men, with their spiritual and psychological growth, and with achieving happiness and maturity. It was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in religion and spirituality, and has been the basis for many LGBT discussion and support groups, classes, and workshops.

Noteworthy

1996 -

The European Parliament calls for an end to "all discrimination against homosexuals."